Posts Tagged ‘V-Day’

Wow.I really enjoyed last night’s V-Day benefit concert (Tickled Pink!) at the Phoenix Concert Theatre.The musicians were incredible and the host was hysterical.But most incredibly I found myself totally moved by Eve Ensler and I wasn’t really expecting to get teary last night.Eve spoke candidly about her own past riddled with rape and abuse and recounted a few of the many stories she hears at every appearance from survivors of violence.She told us how the UN conservatively estimates that 1 in 3 women will be abused or a victim of some kind of violence in her life.And the V-Day is the largest raiser of funds to fight back against violence –which is incredible sad because they only raise 5-7 million dollars a year.To make it crystal clear how little money that is in the face of a global epidemic, she pointed out that 5-7 million is what the US spends on less than 10 minutes of the war in Iraq.That is a paltry amount to battle Femicide –a term Eve threw out there last night and it is a shocking word but what else can describe such widespread violence and hatred against half the world’s population?

Eve also talked about men and how without men figuring out how damaging the patriarchy is to them as well, they suffer along with us.She reiterated the sad truth that what men are taught above all else is that they have to be anything but a woman.As more women raise men in feminist households maybe that will start to go away but essentially without helping the men understand, violence will never go away.

I’m so glad we attended this event; I wish more in the group had come out for it because above all else it has gotten me psyched up for IWD and in the right headspace for all the feminist events we’ve been scheduling.Inspiring!